Design of an Ergonomic Dental Lab Workstation for Preclinical Activity

Dentistry has come a long way since its inception and often overlooked compared to other scientific advancements. Dentistry is one of the professions where ergonomics plays an important role in ensuring comfort and safety for both the staff and patients. A dental lab workstation is one of the main requirements of dentistry and ergonomic factors have to be taken into consideration while designing a dental lab workstation. The potential size of the Indian dental market is huge and it is projected that India is to become one of the largest single country markets for overseas dental products and materials. The design process started with primary data collection with the help of surveys to arrive at the product, market and user study needs and requirements. The Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Product Design Specifications (PDS) were generated based on the collected survey data and findings. Various concepts were generated and using the Weighted Ranking Method, the final concept was selected. Detail design of final concept was developed further to build a proto type of the Dental Lab Workstation. Design validation was carried out using the prototype with the user group and the results were positive and satisfactory.